title: The response of mouse oocytes injected with sea urchin spermatozoa.
abstract: Sea urchin spermatozoa were injected into mature mouse oocytes to determine whether they can activate mouse oocytes and, if so, how they behave within the oocyte cytoplasm of such a distant species. While injection of a single spermatozoon into each oocyte did not activate any of the oocytes, injection of 10 spermatozoa activated about 20%. Within the cytoplasm of unactivated oocytes, sperm heads commonly transformed into chromosome-like structures. When a single spermatozoon was injected, and oocytes were then activated by Sr2+, about 30% of the activated oocytes had both female (mouse) and male (sea urchin) pronuclei when examined 8 h after sperm injection. These results indicated that sperm-borne oocyte activating factor(s) and the cytoplasmic factors controlling the development of the sperm pronucleus are not strictly species-specific.
authors.affiliation: University of Hawaii School of Medicine, Honolulu 96822, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wakayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uehara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagimachi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007987:Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008845:Microinjections; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D012617:Sea Urchins / Q000502:physiology*; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013324:Strontium / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D007987:Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone; D013324:Strontium